XL Innovate will invest in companies that “have a strategic focus on developing new capabilities in the insurance sector,” XL said Wednesday in a statement.

The statement said XL Innovate “will strive to create partnerships outside of the traditional underwriting space to find ways to underwrite currently uninsured risks.”

According to XL Innovate’s website, its early focus will include underserved risk markets, innovative approaches to risk underwriting and client access, and financial technology with application to risk underwriting.

Tom Hutton, most recently CEO and founder of New Energy Risk Inc., will head the new operation. New Energy Risk is a provider of innovative data analytics, strategic consulting and financial risk transfer solutions to the renewable energy industry worldwide, and partnered with XL last year to launch a fuel cell insurance product, XL said in the statement.

“We are very excited to launch this new initiative, which will extend XL’s capabilities in existing markets and give us new opportunities to address some of the most pressing and complex risk problems in the global economy,” said XL CEO Mike McGavick in the statement. “XL Innovate is an important step as we continue to drive our focus on innovation forward and secure the relevance of XL and the industry well into the future.”